κατηγορία

Forms

κᾰτηγορῐ́ᾱ (katēgoríā) f (genitive κᾰτηγορῐ́ᾱς); first declension^[1]

Etymology

It is from Ancient Greek κατηγορέω (katēgoréō, “to accuse; to assert”), with the suffix -ία (-ía).^[1][2] The verb is from κατήγορος (katḗgoros, “accuser”), or directly from κατά (katá, “against”) and ἀγορεύω (agoreúō, “to speak in the assembly”),^[1] a verb from ἀγορά (agorá, “assembly”).^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

It is first found in the 5th century BC, in Herodotus and Thucydides, meaning an accusation, and Thucydides sets it against a mere complaint, αἰτία (aitía).^[3][4]

Semantic evolution

In the Attic orators it was the prosecution in court, and Aristotle's Rhetoric sets it against the defence, ἀπολογία (apología).^[5][3] Later prose also used it for criticism in general.^[5]

Aristotle turned the word into a term of logic: by his time the verb's sense “accuse” had weakened to “assert, name”,^[2] and κατηγορία became the act of predicating something of a subject, then the predicate itself, and above all one of the highest classes of predicates, the categories, which he counts as ten in the Topics but as eight or seven elsewhere.^[3][5]

In the New Testament it is again an accusation brought against someone (John 18:29; 1 Timothy 5:19), and it passed as a loanword into rabbinic Hebrew.^[6] Medieval vernacular Greek, with the by-form κατηγοριά (katigoriá), used it for blame and also for testimony.^[7] The logical term went into Late Latin as Latin categoria and, through French catégorie, into English category in the 1580s.^[2] Modern Greek κατηγορία (katigoría) continues the ancient word as “accusation”; its everyday sense “category, class” is a semantic loan from French.^[8]

Timeline

• 5th century BC – Herodotus uses it of an accusation.^[3][9]
• 5th century BC – Thucydides contrasts an accusation with a complaint.^[3][9]
• 4th century BC – Aristotle uses it in logic for predication, the predicate and the categories.^[3][5][9]
• 1100–1669 – Vernacular texts use it for blame and for testimony.^[7]
• 1580s – English borrows category from French, which had it through Late Latin.^[2]
• Modern Greek – The word means both “accusation” and, after French, “category”.^[8]

Meanings

Noun

1. An accusation, a charge against someone.^[3][5][6]
2. (law) A prosecution or indictment; the accuser's case, as opposed to the defence.^[5][3]
3. Criticism, censure.^[5]
4. (logic) predication, the attribution of a property to a subject.^[3][5]
5. (logic) A predicate.^[3][5]
6. (philosophy) A category, one of the highest classes of predicates.^[3][5]

Related words

• κατηγορέω (katēgoréō)
• κατήγορος (katḗgoros)
• ἀγορεύω (agoreúō)
• Latin categoria
• English category

References

1. ^ a b c d e f Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Liddell, Henry George; Scott, Robert; Jones, Henry Stuart (1940), A Greek-English Lexicon, 9th ed., Oxford: Clarendon Press
4. ^ Keersmaekers, Alek (2021–2025), GLAUx: The Greek Language Automated corpus, https://github.com/alekkeersmaekers/glaux
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Diggle, James, et al., eds. (2021), The Cambridge Greek Lexicon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
6. ^ a b Bauer, Walter; Danker, Frederick W., et al. (2000), A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 3rd ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press
7. ^ a b Kriaras, Emmanuel, Επιτομή του Λεξικού της μεσαιωνικής ελληνικής δημώδους γραμματείας 1100–1669, Κέντρο Ελληνικής Γλώσσας, https://www.greek-language.gr
8. ^ a b Ινστιτούτο Νεοελληνικών Σπουδών (Ίδρυμα Μανόλη Τριανταφυλλίδη) (1998), Λεξικό της κοινής νεοελληνικής, Thessaloniki: Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
9. ^ a b c Rodríguez Adrados, Francisco, et al., eds. (1980–), Diccionario Griego-Español, Madrid: CSIC, http://dge.cchs.csic.es/xdge